(Image via Getty)
How can you measure a law school’s worth, aside from the employment statistics of its graduates? Another telling sign of its success may be its selectivity — i.e., its acceptance rate.
But which law schools had the lowest acceptance rates? There’s a ranking for that, of course.
How MyCase’s Smart Spend Can Help Increase Your Profits
This tweak to your financial management seems like a no-brainer.
According to U.S. News, the average acceptance rate in fall 2022 was 41 percent. Among the schools with the lowest acceptance rates, the average rate was much lower, at 11 percent. As you may have guessed, the law schools with the lowest acceptance rates are some of the usual suspects, the elite schools found at the tippy top of the U.S. News rankings.
Please feel free to check them out below, courtesy of U.S. News.
|
SCHOOL NAME (STATE) |
APPLICANTS (FALL 2022) |
ACCEPTANCES (FALL 2022) |
ACCEPTANCE RATE |
U.S. NEWS RANK |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yale Law School (CT) | 4,129 | 236 | 6% | 1 (tie) | ||||
| Stanford Law School (CA) | 4,882 | 336 | 7% | 1 (tie) | ||||
| Boston College Law School (MA) | 6,022 | 612 | 10% | 29 (tie) | ||||
| Harvard Law School (MA) | 8,170 | 822 | 10% | 5 (tie) | ||||
| University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School | 6,816 | 664 | 10% | 4 | ||||
| Duke University School of Law (NC) | 6,250 | 671 | 11% | 5 (tie) | ||||
| Columbia Law School (NY) | 7,972 | 951 | 12% | 8 (tie) | ||||
| University of California, Berkeley School of Law | 6,722 | 838 | 12% | 10 (tie) | ||||
| University of Southern California Gould School of Law | 5,867 | 745 | 13% | 16 (tie) | ||||
| University of Virginia School of Law | 6,031 | 777 | 13% | 8 (tie) | ||||
| University of Chicago Law School (IL) | 5,246 | 747 | 14% | 3 | ||||
| University of Michigan—Ann Arbor Law School | 6,253 | 845 | 14% | 10 (tie) |
Ten of the 12 law schools with the lowest acceptance rates fall within the top of the most recent U.S. News rankings, with USC (#16) and Boston College (tied at #29) sneaking in to complete the list. Some of the top 14 schools that didn’t make the cut here were Northwestern, UCLA, NYU, and Cornell, with acceptance rates of 15.05 percent, 15.50 percent, 15.65 percent, and 17.44 percent, respectively.
How AI Is Transforming The Legal Profession (2025)
A survey of professionals reveals the impact of legal work, clients, concerns, and future roles.
Where does your law school stand when it comes to its acceptance rate? Check out your school’s most recent Standard 509 Report to find out.
12 Law Schools That Are Hardest to Get Into [U.S. News]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.